Random ruminations: law education reform; another clueless grad and tastelessly ‘on the piste.’

First, there’s the New York Times editorializing on Friday for “Legal Education Reform.” Even if the august newspaper says the current instructional model is outdated, law school reform’s not about to happen. There are too many self-interested stakeholders invested in case method, law review, and the Socratic status quo.

Moreover, the majority of law school profs would need not 1 but 2 flashlights and both hands to find all 4 cheeks in the demanding billable hour 7-day work world. So the last thing they’ll want to consider are the practical skills curricula and apprentice-style reforms called for by the Times. Also see “Hah! Law schools operating their own law firm.”

And pardon the scary thought of self-important Ivory Tower scholars deigning to act like trade school teachers. More than 40 years after that silly movie made its mark, law school professors still see themselves as current day throwbacks to “The Paper Chase‘s Professor Charles Kingsfield’s hoary guiding principle, “You come in here with a skull full of mush and you leave thinking like a lawyer.”

All that sounds grand in concept. But it’s a far cry from what law schools should be doing, which the Times prescribes as “trying to align what and how they teach to what legal practice now entails and what individuals and institutions need.”

Second rumination – Cluelessness continued.

By the time the local Phoenix paper finally takes note of such things, perhaps there’s hope for the totally clueless. This morning’s front page Arizona Republic story, “Middle-class life harder to get, keep,” recounts the woeful tale of a formerly solidly middle class family who tail-spinned into debt, underemployment and a housing bubble bursting bugbear.

But central to the woeful tale is what happened to the son, an ASU Law School grad, who as late as 2008 when he enrolled in law school, still thought he’d be the exception that proves the “high-paying job” as a lawyer rule. He thought this despite the fact that “The entire legal industry has been constricting for some time now.”

Unfortunately, as the story notes, his reality today “is $160,000 in debt for education loans. He has $45 in his bank account and has moved back home with his parents.”

A University of Chicago egghead quoted by the paper says of the deluded young man’s situation, “Look, you have proven that you are smart and that you are not a cynic.”

But here’s a reality check. Using an online “Student loan repayment calculator,“ to service that $160,000 debt on a standard 120 month repayment schedule at 6.8% simple interest, the young man would require a minimum annual salary of $276,192.00 to make the $1841.28 monthly payments. He’s currently clerking for the county public defender’s office making less than $40K while he rolls the dice on his second bar exam attempt. (Without special dispensation, “An applicant taking and failing the examination three times will not be permitted to take a further examination.”) See “Rules for Admission.”

And so remembering what the late Molly Ivins said, “It’s hard to argue against cynics – they always sound smarter than optimists because they have so much evidence on their side.”

Video game monitors have been installed at a pub called “The Exhibit.” One featured game is called “On The Piste” where a user’s right or left ‘stream’ directs an interactive video skier downhill. The report posted last Friday by Digital Trends states that “besides making a trip to the bathroom more entertaining, it will also be an opportunity for advertisers to promote their products.”

And there you have it. ____________________________________________________________________